The Beautiful and Ever-Expanding World of IPA

India Pale Ales have taken the craft beer scene by storm over the recent years, with brewers pushing the boundaries of the style and creating unique takes and twists on this classic style. It's become a staple in every brewery and pub in the nation, which only encourages creativity amongst brewers who are trying to help theirs stand out. IPA is a very large topic, so we'll take it a piece at a time, starting with its beginnings.

History

While much of the history of IPA is shrouded in mystery, there is one consistency amongst the various stories – in the 1700's, the ale being transported to India was suffering from spoilage due to the hot environment and vigorous sea voyage. Though the actual brewer origin of IPA is hotly debated and has been attributed to many specific brewers (most commonly George Hodson of Bow Brewery, London), but no one knows for sure who the true originator of the style was.

Hops work as a natural preservative and helped reinforce the integrity of the brew over the sea voyage, sometimes increasing the hopload by 300% per barrel. These over-hopped English Pale Ales were eventually dubbed “India Pale Ale” and has remained as such ever since.

By the 1760's, it was deemed “essential” to add more hops to beer destined for warmer climates, and the breweries followed suit, creating a new regional style that was destined to endure. These 'original' IPAs usually featured a moderate alcohol presence around 6%abv and presented an aggressive hop presentation over an early and simplistic malt presentation. I'm sure our palates today would find these beers unbalanced, muddled and unsophisticated – but for the time, these beers were truly unique and soon found a foothold in the pale ale and porter dominated European markets.

English IPA thrives to this very day, and upon craft beer's resurgence in the United States in the late 70's, we were introduced to a new, bold style: American IPA.

The Three Defined Categories

IPA has many variations, especially in our modern craft climate, but as far as technically defined styles, there are only three: English IPA, American IPA, and Imperial IPA – I'll get to the variations later.

While discussing these styles, I'll be referring to their modern representations, not historical - what these styles have come to be in regards to our present craft beer industry.

English IPA

This is the classic European IPA, and I particularly love this style for it's subtlety. English IPAs are more focused on the malt and yeast end of the presentation, with a classic English hop flavor alongside a moderate bitterness. This style is smooth, balanced, and accessible.

Overall Impression: A hoppy, moderately strong pale ale that features characteristics consistent with the use of English malt, hops and yeast. Has less hop character and a more pronounced malt flavor than American versions.

American IPA

This is our modern, American take on the classic English IPA. As with most American interpretations of classic styles, American IPA stays true to our theme of “bigger, stronger, and more intense”.

The interesting thing about American IPA for me is that this style is designed to be off-balanced. It's one of the only styles in the world that is meant to be off-balance, in terms of the malt and hop presentation. Where the English IPA presents a balanced presentation of malt and hop, say 5 units hops to 5 units malt, American IPA is fundamentally skewed, generally presenting more along the lines of 3-7. The hops are the highlight and the focus, so the hop presence gets shoved right out front by pulling back on the body. Some American IPAs are more malt forward, but most follow this general imbalance.

American IPAs are usually fermented very clean, presenting no yeast character or esters, allowing the hops to remain the primary presentation.

Imperial IPA

This is the behemoth of the IPA category, and can be brewed in the American style or the English style with minor adjustments to the beer's structure and, more importantly, the yeast strain selected for fermentation. This is a massive style with room for interpretation, yet most examples still maintain the aforementioned imbalance, though not quite as drastic as the American IPA's.

Some brewers take this style and present a massive hop display while keeping the body reserved (Stone Ruination DIPA), and others choose to pair the hop presentation with an equally bold and intense body (Avery Maharaja DIPA). There are plenty of excellent DIPA examples around the nation, and I encourage you to explore them all! Every brewer is different and can take this style in many different directions.

Overall Impression: An intensely hoppy, very strong pale ale without the big maltiness and/or deeper malt flavors of an American barleywine. Strongly hopped, but clean, lacking harshness, and a tribute to historical IPAs. Drinkability is an important characteristic; this should not be a heavy, sipping beer. It should also not have much residual sweetness or a heavy character grain profile.

VITAL STATISTICS:

Original Gravity (starting sugar): 1.070-1.090

Final Gravity (remaining sugar): 1.010-1.020

International Bitterness Units: 60-120

SRM (color): 8-15 (gold to light copper)

ABV: 7.5-10%

Try: Bell's Hopslam, Avery Maharaja, Dogfish 90 Minute IPA

The Ever-Expanding World

With such an established staple of a style like IPA, brewers are always trying to come up with new and exciting takes on the style. Be it construction variation, flavor addition, maturation, or even souring, brewers are pushing the envelope of the style day by day.

Black IPA – An American IPA with a dark malt addition. This style can be taken one of two ways: adjusted for color, and adjusted for flavor. Personally, the latter is the only kind I enjoy – what's the point of just changing the color? Try: B-Craft Black DIPA – Arcadia Ales, Back in Black – 21st Amendment BC, Sublimely Self- Righteous – Stone BC

Triple IPA (TRIPA)– The American craft scene took it one step further and created an even more intense style of IPA, the triple IPA. This style is more than massive, with a more than intense hop presentation over a very bold malt backbone. Some equate this style to an over-hopped American Barleywine. Try: Devil Dancer - Founders BC, Pliny the Younger – Russian River BC

As you can see, the world of IPA is full of engaging variety, I encourage you to explore the style! There are so many flavors that can be relayed just by hops themselves, and an IPA in the hands of a talented brewer transcends 'having a beer' - it's an experience.

Ben Darcie has been homebrewing since 2006 and is currently the Brewery Representative for Brewery Vivant in Grand Rapids, MI. He also provides public and private Beer Education and is a Beer Writer for BeerAdvocate, I'm a Beer Hound and three other Michigan publications. He is also the founder of Experience Beer WM and the 9wk Grand Rapids Beer Tasting Class (est. 2010).